CHAPTER 16: Jessi

It was a warm evening during the first week of July. Manette and I arrived at the stage door of the 47th Street Theatre, which is off-Broadway, to get ready for our show. You see, we'd been rehearsing for this '80s revue since early May, and tonight was opening night. I hadn't felt this excited since I'd gotten the lead in Coppélia.

After we'd signed in and changed into our costumes, we started on our stretching exercises. "All set?" I asked him.

He nodded. That's when I noticed the ring on his right middle finger.

"Hey, isn't that the ring you wore when we were in Washington?" I asked.

He nodded. "I always wear it when I perform. For luck." And he kissed the ruby right in the middle.

"We'll be great," I assured him, and just to be sure, I kissed the diamond in my engagement ring, then we shared a pretty big smooch. (Yeah, yeah, I know: "Get a room!" or "I'm telling!" Take your pick.) After we finished stretching, we put our make-up on and helped others who needed it with theirs.

A few minutes later, Jean-Luc—our choreographer, and the nephew of Mme. Noelle, my former ballet teacher in Stamford—called us into the practice room. "Well, mademoiselles et monsieurs, this is it," he told us in his heavy French accent, and with a huge grin on his face. "You've all worked tres hard over the past two months, and have done a remarkable job in showing up for rehearsals, or calling in when you were sick or on vacation. I just wanted to tell you that I'm proud of each and every one of you, and I wish you all the very best of luck out there. C'est tout."

"Break a leg," Manette whispered.

"You, too." The two of us squeezed hands, then went off to join the other dancers. Our show was about to begin.

Our opening number was "Far From Over" by Frank Stallone, which is the theme song from Staying Alive. Some of the other songs we danced to were the Footloose theme and "All Night Long" by Lionel Richie. All our hard work had paid off, and we had one hell of a great show to prove it.

After the show, we went backstage to wait for the audience. I saw the Everetts, the Thomases, and the Brunos. "Hi, you guys," I said as they came over to us, and we went into a major hug-fest.

"Hi, Jessi. Great show," Mary Anne said.

"Thanks."

"How much longer does it run?" Jason wanted to know.

"About two weeks, then I get a break until September, which is when we start working on The Nutcracker."

"Really?" Logan asked.

I nodded. "Last year was our first year to do it. I was a snowflake, and Manette was one of the dolls in the party scene. This year, we're auditioning for the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier."

"Wow, really?" Kristy asked.

"Yup. As soon as we find out what parts we got, we'll let you know. Hopefully, we'll be able to score some comp tickets."

"I'm sure you'll be great. When the time does come, as you know, Jason and I won't be able to be there, especially since it'll be close to my due date, but we'll be thinking of you."

"Thanks, Kristy. I just hope we don't have another blizzard during rehearsals or the run of that show."

"Yeah, really," Kristy agreed. "And just between us, Jessi, I would've rather been stuck in Stamford than at home with Bart spending the night."

I smiled as I tried my hardest not to laugh. You see, Bart Taylor, who's now Shannon Kilbourne's fiancé, had been Kristy's boyfriend at the time, and they coached opposing softball teams. Kristy's team was called Kristy's Krushers, and he was coaching Bart's Bashers. I don't know if the Bashers had a team purpose, but the team purpose of the Krushers was to help kids who were either too young or too scared to try out for Little League—which some later did, and even played softball in high school. The teams disbanded when Bart and Kristy were sophomores in high school, due to their extremely busy schedules.

Anyway, one night, Kristy invited Bart over for dinner and a movie, and just when he was getting ready to leave, the storm really hit. And I mean so hard that Bart couldn't even open the front door. Well, Kristy's mom and Watson weren't about to let him go out in that kind of weather, so they suggested he spend the night. To this day, Kristy says that is one experience she still wishes she could erase from her mind.

"Well, Kristy, at least David Michael isn't here to sing his 'Bart, Bart bo Bart' song," I pointed out. For a moment, I thought she was going to bite my head off for mentioning that, but she laughed—which, not surprisingly, got the rest of us going.

"Good show," Sam said when he and Stacey had their turn to talk to us.

"Yeah," Logan agreed.

"Thanks, you guys," I said. Then, turning to Stacey, I said, "Hey, the last time I talked to you, you said that you'd been approved for adoption. Have you heard anything about getting a baby yet?"

"No, not yet, but we're hoping it's soon," Sam answered.

"So, Kristy, how are you feeling?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, I've been doing all right," she answered. "My morning sickness and emotional yo-yo have started to clear up a little, and my food cravings aren't as demented as I thought they'd be. I've mostly eaten peanut butter, bacon, and banana sandwiches."

"Oh, my God, that's gross!" Mary Anne exclaimed.

"Well, that was Elvis' favorite kind of sandwich," Manette pointed out. "I mean, without the bacon."

"I guess that when you're expecting, or as doped up as he was, you don't give a shit what you eat," I commented. I'm not too sure, but I think I saw Mary Anne roll her eyes and shake her head disapprovingly. She's not too keen on hearing people swear.

"Oh, by the way," Kristy interjected, "have you two set a wedding date yet?"

"We don't know yet, but we know it'll be next year," Manette answered. "And it'll probably be around Valentine's Day."

"Okay," Jason said. "You'll let us know, right, Jessi?"

I nodded.

"Oh, we're staying at Sam and Stacey's tonight and heading back in the morning," Kristy said.

"Good idea. You don't want to be on the roads this late at night."

"Right."

"'Night, you guys."

After everyone had left, Manette and I changed out of our costumes and washed our make-up off. "Let's go to McDonald's," Manette suggested.

I smiled, because I knew which McDonald's he was talking about. It was the same one where he'd proposed to me.

As we got in the truck, I thought, Tonight was really our night.